on February 6, in the morning, it was ice cold, cloudy and windy on the way from Toblach to Cortina. Suddenly I found myself in the third of four starting blocks, between tense racers, that were nervously sliding back and forth on their skis, trying not to freeze solid.Our starting signal went off and like at the MTB Marathon I tried to match the fast starting tempo. My view was of the dangerously thrown back tips of the poles of the persons in front of me. I wasn't able to keep up. We went over the flat Toblach field and then through a cross country stadium and we runners were no longer mush, but a string of pearls. The speedy ones from the last starting block slid past. Now came the long, long ascent that, at one point, gave way the view onto the three Zinns and goes around the Lago di Landro and comes to its highest point Cimabanche.So about 15-20m/25-30km just uphill… by the way it is just strenuous on an MTB and the Dolomiti Superbike is on the same cross country ski run.

Meanwhile, I really didn't care whether I was slow or not, since I was in such good company. Kind of lumbering along from exhaustion I kept canting my skis into the snow and sort of slid uphill, with blisters on my hands from dragging the poles. In the final phase of the ascent, an Italian skier said to me "not looking at skis, looking up to mountain, much better!". I took his advice and fastened gaze to the Croda Rossa, a 10,322ft/3146m high mountain with a tip that was red, due to the iron that is stored in it. It was much better and the image of the 9m/15km descent was very encouraging.Finally it started going downhill. I kept trying to get into the run and double time it by pushing of with my poles, only to find out that long skating steps were faster… oh well, Claudia Künzel would have probably used her poles on everyone of those steps and would have gone about twice as fast.I enjoyed not having to lug as much as before and slid slowly downward, in love with the countryside.

The track leads you through an old train tunnel and when you come out of it you have a view of Cortina. So this is where the sun was hiding…Almost blinded by the showy mountain panorama and the glistening sun, I took the most beautiful part of the descent upon myself. I slid down at about 15-20mph/25-30km/h, the poles squeezed to my body and it was gorgeous.The snow was not the fastest, but I could trust every step imprint of the ridge. In the small cross country stadium of Cortina we did a last, little lap. The last few vertical feet really hurt.Then came the finish line, after 3:36 and there they gave out medals, a lot of food and the sun shown bright. It was definitely awesome and the fact that just four days before was the first time I practiced the skating technique was very satisfying.As the trainer for cross country I usually only impart the classic technique, due to low demand… but that could be subject to change. Furthermore, I seem to be a serial offender.For more, check out www.dobbiacocortina.org
Melina